About Our Parish

A History of St. Patrick Parish

Catholicism in the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire

The Church Universal in 1835

The history of our parish begins in the year 1835. Governing the Universal Church is Pope Gregory XVI. Bartolomeo Cardinal Alberto Cappellari was elected to the Pontificate on Wednesday February 2nd 1831 after a five day conclave. He became the two hundred and fifty-fourth successor of St. Peter. He will reign fifteen years and one hundred and nineteen days until his death on June 1, 1846. A Benedictine monk, he would be the last non-bishop to be elected as Holy Father.

In America, the nation was comprised of only twenty-four states and the Catholic Church is organized as a single ecclesiastical province: the Archdiocese of Baltimore, this area of the country having the greatest concentration of Catholic immigrants. All the territory of the United States belonged to the Archdiocese of Baltimore under the pastoral ministry of the Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, its fifth bishop. There were only four dioceses within the Archdiocese of Baltimore (1789), all of which came under its jurisdiction: Boston (1808), New York (1808), Philadelphia (1808), and Louisville (1808).

As an interesting side note, the future American Saint, John Neumann, completed his studies for the priesthood in Europe; however, due to the surplus of priests in the Czech Republic he was refused ordination. This prompted John Neumann to travel the following year to the Untied States in 1836 where he was ordained in Old Saint Patrick Cathedral in New York and would be eventually chosen and consecrated the the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. Today his body lays incorrupt in the lower Church of St. Peter in Philadelphia. He is the first American male saint to be canonized.

Historical Timeline

1835

Jan. 8 - This day marks the only time in United States history that the nation is without debt during the presidency of Andrew Jackson.

May 17 - Pope Gregory XVI issues his papal encyclical Commissum Divinitus asserting the Church's authority to teach and govern in matters of faith and religion.

Nov. 1 - Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, S.S. receives the sacred pallium as the fifth Archbishop of Baltimore. During his time as Archbishop, the Blessed Virgin Mary is chosen to be the patroness of the United States.